Answer: |
Dear Mom, Thank you for your question. I hope the following “brainstorm” is helpful to you and your husband as you prayerfully discern the Lord’s will for your family:
Will the school design a curriculum around your student, or force your child into classes that are unnecessary and/or detrimental?
Will the school in question offer as much one-on-one as a homeschool format does?
If your child is seeking more 'socialization':
- will the school provide positive or negative socialization?
-is your child strong enough to resist the intense peer pressure and still retain a focus on Godly principles, or will he/she value socialization more than academics and his/her soul?
-is there another, non-school avenue for socialization, such as 4-H, community music, arts, or sports programs, parish youth activities, Catholic homeschool groups, or through volunteer work at hospitals, crisis pregnancy centers, as aide in primary parochial school classroom, etc.?
-is socialization the primary goal or is an academic education the goal? What is the key purpose for attending public/private school?
If there is a concern about the ability to teach higher-level subjects, is there a way that your child can receive these classes:
-as part of a homeschool group
-through private tutoring [contact high schools for tutors, or retired or substitute teachers]
-at a community college
-by taking that class ONLY at a local school
Might the child be enrolled ONLY in one challenging class - e.g., math, to allow him/her to demonstrate his/her ability to deal both with academics and socialization?
[Experiencing reality for one class may give the child a different picture of public/private school than he/she imagined.]
Should the parent, who sees a far broader picture than a child, make the final decision, or should it be left to a child who cannot yet rightly discern the impact of the decision? God bless you,
Theresa Johnson |